Is GeM Government’s e-marketplace listening to the real issues?

Is GeM listening to the real issues? MAIT wants to know

According to MAIT, there are over 19,000 buyer organisations registered on the GeM platform and 50,000 sellers and over 3,60,000 products have been listed so far.

The Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT), the apex body representing India’sIThardwaresectors and certain manufacturers, expressed concern over the government’s e-marketplace (GeM) portal and pointed out that the entire focus so far has been on implementation rather than incorporating the views of stakeholders.

Speaking to ET, Anwar Shirpurwala, executive director MAIT, said that there are multiple issues but the key issue still remains of delay in payments which are to be made by the government departments. Also, there is currently one single user ID for a company which creates a large number of complications and potentially has the risk of a single point of failure.

He said the key concern with the GeM implementation remains that it was implemented in a very short span of time and therefore the government had to come with various versions like GeM 1.0, GeM 2.0 and now GeM 3.0 is in the pipeline. “The question of resistance to change by various stakeholders was also not addressed and the renewal of rate contracts was stopped arbitrarily.

The transition from paper-based procurement to an online procurement portal would have taken time which was cut short by government and therefore there were so many concerns by theindustry,” he said.

But he is quick to point out that GeM is improving and the government is now incorporating the views of industry. The industry feedback on GeM is taken very seriously by the authorities and the same is getting reflected in the newer versions of GeM. “The only thing that mattered was that for some time rate contracts and GeM should have simultaneously existed. Its not only the industry but officials in various departments at the Centre as well as state governments are facing issues placing orders for their requirement.”

According to MAIT, there are over 19,000 buyer organisations registered on the GeM platform and 50,000 sellers and over 3,60,000 products have been listed so far.

There are over 17 states like AP, Assam and Gujaratwho have signed MOUs with the Centre for getting on board GeM.